Don't want to talk about it but then I do

I've been a little bummed this week. Our school, which has already had some really terrible luck this year - we had a devastating fire in July, a molestation arrest out of the (non-affiliated) after school program, and a school lockdown a few weeks ago because they thought there was a man with a gun - now more trouble has come to light. I don't want to get into too many details because I really have mixed feelings about the whole affair (and if you live in this area you probably already know about it anyway). However, the gist is two people were appropriating funds from the PTA and one of them was just arrested.

The problem - my problem - is I knew this woman. I knew this woman and I really liked her. Actually, I still like her. She was great with the kids, she was wonderful with my son in particular. I just feel sick over this. I was absolutely shocked when I heard about the arrest. I don't know what the circumstances were that led up to this situation but I know the amount taken was cumulative over time. I think, I hope, it comes down to sometimes good people make bad decisions.

We live in a really great community. I really like the people in our neighborhood and at our school and all these bad events just don't reflect how much people care and come together in this neighborhood. It's just been so much this year already. I really hope this means our school has paid our dues in bad karma for a least a few years.

Comments

I've been thinking about you since this hit the news. It seems an unjust amount of hardships have hit your school in the past year and I can only hope things get better. My heart goes out to you and the other families at your school. You deserve lots of good karma to balance all this out!

A while back, I found out two people with whom I was becoming friends were not what they presented themselves to be. And I felt tremendous pain.

However, this seems to be a good person who just made a bad decision. There was an associate pastor in our church back in Mobile who did basically the same thing. He was the youth director when I was in the youth group, and he took money from the youth fund. He said he'd intended to pay it back--and I believe he had. Because he was such a good person, and such a good youth director. And our minister didn't file charges--just terminated his employment. I still feel that he was a good person, with a good heart, who just made a bad mistake.

That's a tough one. The only problem is, if the money was taken over time, then she made a bad decision every single time she did it.

My school district is also have a rough time. Fights between staff and the board, and they just voted to make some cuts - including a couple teachers involved with the gifted program at the middle school level.

Scott - Yuck, that sounds like another bad situation! Somehow you think schools and churches will be exempt from this sort of thing but they aren't. So sad.

J. Noel - You're absolutely right, a bad decision was made each time it happened. I'm sorry your school is having a rough time, too. It's really sad what's happening to our schools because of budget crunches. A couple of aides at school suggested that I take the tests to work at school (because I'm there so much already) but the work is hard and the politics and cuts make it even harder. I'd rather just volunteer.